The “World’s Greatest Salesman” Succeeded With This Simple, Surprising Tactic

Car salesmen get a bad rap. But people loved Joe Girard. 

They loved him so much, they waited in line to buy cars from him. A lot of cars.

Named the Greatest Salesman of All Time by the Guinness Book of World Records, Joe Girard sold a mind-blowing 13,001 cars during his career. 

These weren’t bulk sales. They were individual buyers, one at a time. To put that in perspective, a typical car salesman takes 4-5 cars off the lot every month.

Joe averaged 6 per day for well over a decade.

So, what’s his secret? Surely, you’re thinking it’s an advanced FBI negotiation tactic, refined ‘mirroring’ technique, or the classic performative hard close. Maybe it’s a litany of tips and tricks that come with a decade of experience.

But it’s not.

In fact, according to his peers, Joe was…remarkably average. Sure, he took selling seriously. He dressed the part. He tossed business cards into the stands at basketball games. He studied trends. But so did everyone else. It was their livelihood, after all.

So, what made him an exponential success—where prospects booked him a month in advance when they could have chosen his co-workers on the spot?

His #1 tactic was simple.

He used personal, handwritten notes to build years-long customer relationships.

If Attention is Currency, a Handwritten Note is Liquid Gold

A recent study showed that human attention spans are shorter than goldfish.

Think about that: Nemo, your nephew's pet fish, can now hold attention longer than the average human being.

Today, the average American receives 147 emails per day, while the U.S. Post Office says people receive a handwritten note once every two months. 

But why should you care?

As a business, it’s easy to focus exclusively on acquiring new leads, while you’re sitting on a goldmine of customers and prospects who already have gotten to know, like, and trust you.

In other words, most brands ignore the fastest path to increased profits, repeat purchases, and a stream of referrals by forgetting to capture the attention of those in front of them.

In business, those who can capture attention win. They win by closing more deals, receiving more referrals, and staying top of mind with prospects and customers.

But not all attention is equal.

We’ve all received an occasional “thank you” email, text message, or a follow-up call. (And even those are rare these days.)

While they’re cute, they get lost in the sea of instantaneous communication and digital overload. They have little “stickiness,” what Malcolm Gladwell referred to as ideas and experiences that are remembered.

Instead, there’s never been a better way to command the undivided attention of your customers and prospects than sending a handwritten note.

Stop Praying for 18% Open Rates When You Can Get 96% Read Rates

Yes, you read that right: handwritten notes have a 96%+ read rate, while emails to your own subscribers are lucky to get opened 18% of the time, and most people now actively avoid phone calls thanks to robo-spammers and being just plain busy.

Now, you may be thinking handwritten notes are for old-timers or ‘classic’ brick-and-mortar businesses, right?

Wrong!

That’s exactly why they do work. It’s unexpected and personal.

In fact, this tactic shouldn’t have worked so well for Joe, which makes his success even more remarkable. In his era, mailboxes were stuffed with all kinds of mail, so he needed to ensure his letters wouldn’t be ignored.

“[A handwritten card] doesn’t look like that junk mail which is thrown out before it’s even opened,” he told one interviewer.

Today, it’s the email inbox that is stuffed with junk, while the studies show customers actually like receiving physical mail from people and brands they know. And they read it.

Just a few reasons why it’s proven to work:

1. You’ll instantly stand out.

The secret to handwritten notes is not penning prose Hemingway would be proud of. 

In fact, Girard’s notes famously had only a few words. What matters is the thought and initiative to do what your competition hasn’t figured out yet. It’s zigging when everyone else is zagging.

(But don’t worry, you don’t have to do it yourself. More on that in a moment.)

2. You’ll be paid back (the Law of Reciprocity).

Think about the last time someone paid for your coffee or sent you a surprise gift.

You likely experienced what psychologists call the Law Of Reciprocity: when someone does something nice to you, there’s a deep-rooted urge to pay it back.

In fact, studies have shown that when your customers receive direct mail from your brand, they see it as a gift, while your competition interrupts and annoys them with emails and news feed ads.

For example, one ecommerce store found that customers receiving a handwritten thank you note were 11X more likely to purchase again compared to those that only received emails.

3. You’ll create trust, connection, and referrals.

In a digitally connected world, we’re starving for physical connection.

The average email has a lifespan of a few minutes…if you’re lucky.

A handwritten note is a physical item that surprises and delights, often saved and stuck on fridges or sits on a table...which means you stay top of mind. And, it’s an experience they often tell their friends about and share on social media.

Even the best email of all time doesn’t get that kind of treatment.

I Get It…But I’m Busy Running a Business Over Here

Okay, but who has the time to write these notes and deal with the post office?

Exactly. 

Enter Handwrite.io—the easiest way to get customized, handwritten notes in the hands of your customers and prospects…on demand. 

In fact, they take care of every step of the process. And no, these notes won’t look like a machine made them…they look 100% handwritten - using a real pen, real ink, real stamps!

See for yourself right here:

Using Zapier integrations, you can create sequences that send handwritten notes without you or your team having to lift a finger...100% automated.

What does this look like?

Say you’re an ecommerce store. Send a note whenever a new customer places an order over $250…simple.

Or, you’re a real estate agent looking to find new clients or homes to flip. Send to your list on demand...easy.

Maybe you’re in B2B sales and want a card sent to a prospect after completing a product demo...done.

The list goes on, but the result is the same:

Your brand and business stay top of mind without you having to do a thing!

Joe Girard’s Simple Tactic Created Exponential Results, and You Can Do the Same

Joe Girard grew up poor, in a rough part of Detroit. He didn’t finish high school. He wasn’t uniquely gifted with world-class talent. 

He understood that by doing what most people don’t…a simple act (especially since he outsourced everything to a team to design and write out the cards, tasks that Handwrite.io does for you) —he stood head and shoulders above the rest.

And you can do the same. 

Using Handwrite.io, you can automate every part of sending handwritten notes, to build more trust, get more referrals and be the person your customers and prospects remember in a world based on superficial, impersonal transactions.

There’s never been a faster, simpler, and hassle-free way to delight your customers and become the remarkable brand they rave about.

Key Takeaways

• Customer retention and referrals are critical to keeping a sales pipeline full. Imagine if every customer you acquired 1) would come back and 2) would tell others to come to you.

• Most salespeople, however, do not focus on retention and referrals. Or if they do, they don’t do it well or systematically.

• The best sales person of all time differentiated himself by offering up a human touch: personalized, handwritten notes sent regularly to all his past customers.

Be Joe Girard!

In 2001, Girard used a fleet of designers and assistants to help him design, write, and personalize his cards. We started Handwrite.io to automate all of this, so you can deliver a human touch at scale.

Simply type your note, import your recipients, and our handwriting robots will put pens on paper and send as many individually personalized cards as you need.

We even use software to make the handwriting look unmistakably human (i.e. different variations of each letter, different line indentations and spacing, even “drift” where the writing starts to slant more at the end of a line. We’ve thought of everything!).

Don’t know where to start? Well we have an offer you can’t refuse, in full Godfather style…

• FREE professional design service to create a custom card design (or choose from our selection of ready-to-go designs).

• Double credits on your first order.

• Free signature digitization (a $199 value)

Stop leaving money on the table and become the brand your customers can’t stop thinking about. We’ll deliver a custom campaign designed to boost retention, profits, and loyalty, all within a couple of days. Limited slots available, so apply today!